Kolkata: Continuing its winning streak, West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress clinched victories with huge margins in all four Assembly constituencies that went for bypolls on July 10.
With this, the ruling party improved its tally in the 294-member Assembly to 219 from 215 and the BJP’s numbers have now come down to 66 from 77 (tally after 2021 Assembly elections). Six seats are vacant, including those held by BJP members who quit and won the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress and Left Front continue to have zero presence in the Assembly.
At Raiganj Assembly constituency in North Dinajpur District, Trinamool Congress candidate Krishna Kalyani has been declared elected by a margin of 50,007 votes, defeating the BJP candidate Manas Kumar Ghosh.
The Congress candidate Mohit Sengupta came a distant third, bagging 23,116 votes.
Kalyani also got elected in 2021 from Raiganj Assembly constituency but that time as a BJP candidate. However, he had to resign as the legislator before the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls as he contested as a Trinamool Congress candidate from Raiganj Lok Sabha and suffered defeat.
At Ranaghat-Dakshin Assembly constituency, Trinamool Congress candidate Mukut Mani Adhikari got elected by a margin of 39,048 votes defeating the BJP’s Manoj Kumar Biswas.
CPI(M) candidate Arindam Biswas came a distant third, bagging just 13,082 votes.
Like Kalyani, Adhikari also got elected from Ranaghat-Dakshin in 2021 but as a BJP candidate. However, he had to resign as a legislator before the recent Lok Sabha polls as he contested as a Trinamool Congress candidate from Ranaghat Lok Sabha, where he got defeated.
At Bagda Assembly, the Trinamool Congress’ candidate Madhuparna Thakur got elected by 33,455 votes defeating BJP candidate Binay Kumar Biswas.
All India Forward Bloc candidate Gour Biswas was distant third position bagging just 8,189 votes.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, BJP candidate Biswajit Das got elected from Bagda. However, he had to resign as the legislator since he contested as a Trinamool Congress candidate from Bangaon in the Lok Sabha polls, where he got defeated.
At the Maniktala Assembly in Kolkata, Trinamool Congress candidate Supti Pandey got elected by a margin of over 62,000 votes defeating BJP candidate Kalyan Chaubey.
CPI(M) candidate Rajib Majumdar came third.
The Maniktala bypoll was necessitated following the demise of erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Sadhan Pandey.
The Trinamool Congress fielded his widow Supti Pandey.
The bypoll results come as a morale booster for the Trinamool Congress and as a major setback to the BJP, considering that even in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls the BJP was comfortably ahead at Raiganj, Bagda and Ranaghat-Dakshin, while the ruling party was marginally ahead at Maniktala.
–IANS